This is a discussion on 04 wrx overheated suddenly within the General Maintenance, Troubleshooting & Accidents. forums, part of the Tech & Modifying & General Repairs category; I had the same issue. I got the Mishimoto radiator and it has been good to me. I use Subaru ...

I had the same issue. I got the Mishimoto radiator and it has been good to me. I use Subaru green coolant and their additive. Now is a good time to buy new radiator hoses as well. Might as well get a new t-stat. If you have an OEM radiator with no cap then you will have to add a tube to the overflow reservoir. Not hard to do this all yourself. If you get new hoses the upper one will need to be trimmed to clear the fans. On the Mishimoto I just filled the petcock with sealant to ensure it never leaks. Good luck.

You did good making it to 198k miles. Might as well just get that timing belt done as well.

Later I will write a thread concerning burping the radiator. This gets asked so much and I haven't seen a good write up yet. It sounds like you are doing it right though.

Life is like riding a bicycle in order to keep your balance you must keep moving.

Ah, interesting. Why does air build up there? I basically filled, ran the car, filled, ran the car, filled, ran the car until no levels dropped, but then obviously the level dropped so you're probably correct.

I had the same issue. I got the Mishimoto radiator and it has been good to me. I use Subaru green coolant and their additive. Now is a good time to buy new radiator hoses as well. Might as well get a new t-stat. If you have an OEM radiator with no cap then you will have to add a tube to the overflow reservoir. Not hard to do this all yourself. If you get new hoses the upper one will need to be trimmed to clear the fans. On the Mishimoto I just filled the petcock with sealant to ensure it never leaks. Good luck.

You did good making it to 198k miles. Might as well just get that timing belt done as well.

Later I will write a thread concerning burping the radiator. This gets asked so much and I haven't seen a good write up yet. It sounds like you are doing it right though.

It's an OEM with radiator cap.

Which radiator hoses do you recommend replacing? I have the upper and lower Perrin 4 ply silicone hoses, so i'll stick with those for sure. They've only been on since 110k or so when i did my timing belt, tstat and water pump.

Also, why fill the petcock with sealant? You just don't use it to drain?

I'll probably still wait on the timing belt and tstat. I'll do all that at the same time. Belt, water pump, oil pump, tstat, tensioner and this time probably all the idler pulleys. I'm sure i'll end up doing camshaft seals and the crank seal as well. I want to run the car for a bit and see if it was negatively effected by the overheating. Especially on the head gasket front. I'm a firm believer in if you're going to do it, do it once. Coolant is cheap. If i have to do a complete rebuild, that's what i'll do. I am pretty sure my rings are still good though, but again, we will see. I may just take it to the dealer to do a compression and leak down test.

I'm on my original clutch too, so i obviously enjoy stretching things out as far as they'll go.

If you have new silicon hoses then you should be good. I thought you still had the old OEM hoses. The only reason I sealed the petcock is because I heard the Mishimoto likes to leak from this spot. So I just remove the lower hose from the t-stat housing to drain the fluid. It is sort of messy but it works.

Sounds like you got everything covered man. Hope the headgasket is ok. I am happy to hear people running their cars so long. 200k miles on the stock clutch is pretty amazing.

I am hearing a squeak when I push my clutch pedal in. Heard it could be the throw out bearing going bad. Not sure if it is due to the cold or what.

Life is like riding a bicycle in order to keep your balance you must keep moving.

I have a slight squeak too. I'm thinking if the clutch makes it to 250k, i'll go pay someone to change it... maybe. I dunno why i would pay for towing insurance if i'm not going to use it. The overheat was the first time i've had to.

Had a similar situation with my 2004 WRX a few months ago. Went to run errands and get some lunch. Parked the car at the restaurant and noticed coolant puddled under the car. Opened the hood and there was coolant all over the place like an explosion. Couldn't really tell where it cam from, etc. Was able to drive it the 5 miles or so home with no problem (temp gauge on dash never went past half way the whole time). Put some coolant in the reservoir and parked it for the day. Checked it the next morning and all the coolant was sucked out of the reservoir into the radiator. Added more to the reservoir and drove it the 10 miles or so to my mechanic. Again, never showed signs of overheating. Turned out it was a cracked radiator. Talked to my boss who's a shade tree mechanic and he said after you park from driving, the coolant is no longer being circulated/cooled in the radiator and will begin to super-heat...and if there's any little failure starting to form, it will crack and explode all over the place.

Just got done putting the Mishimoto in. It's leak free and i ran it for about an hour and it held about the exact same temp as the stock rad. The new rad included bolts for the fans and all that. It was 100% plug and play. No fitment issues whatsoever. I'm happy with it. Now i have to schedule a compression and leak down for next week some time. I'll come back and let people know how it fared.

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